Everyone should use Linux, it’s just whether or not they can use Linux.

Nobara is pretty good for a “just works” gaming-centric distro. The issue that you’re coming across is plain and simple, PopOS is severly outdated. Most of System76’s dev team are likely working on COSMIC.

If you want the absolute most, contiuously up-to-date packages, then I can’t recommend anything other than Arch. I’ve used it as my daily driver for a little over 2 years now and I’ve always come crawling back if I try something else. Gaming on it isn’t a hassle, most of the time it just works, not to be a stereotypical Arch user but do read the Wiki. Arch was also my first ever distro, a friend got me into it.

If Arch is a bit dawnting for you then something Arch-based is just as good, from experience I recommend EndeavourOS. Do not use Manjaro.

In the Steam settings, to use Proton you need to enable it in the “Steam Play” section. Doing this will enable the Proton translation layer and allow you to play (most) Windough$ games on Linux

I usually use Proton Experimental in the dropdown since it seems pretty stable and keeps it up-to-date.

*And enable Steam Play in the settings